Potty Training Methods & Tips

Today was an exciting day in our home. Today our daughter reached another milestone. She peed in her potty for the first time. Let me be more specific, she peed on the potty for the first time after telling us that she had to. While she still has a way to go this was a huge step for us.
As most parents of a child in diapers know, there will come the time where you will need to start potty training. As much as you may be sick of changing diapers, the idea of starting the potty training process may be a little scary. There are so many methods and tricks that parents use, it is hard to know which one will work best for you and your family. Every child is different, so what works for one child may not work for another.

“The Monkey See, Monkey DooDoo”
Children learn by watching. They especially love mimicking our actions. Show your child how you use the potty. My daughter comes to the bathroom with me and will tell me “Mama, mama has poo poo in the bum.” Just pee pee baby.I’m just going pee pee.

“Potty Boot Camp”
Pick a free weekend and spend the weekend in the bathroom with your child, some toys , books and their potty. Keep your child in either training underwear or go bottomless. If you see signs of them having to pee or poop or if they are in the process, direct them to their little toilet. I have known friends of mine to have great success in a short time using this method.

“Read All About It”
There are so many different potty training books out there. Everyone Poops is probably the most popular and famous of these toddler stories. One of my daughter’s favorites is “Potty Time”. It is a cute little story with an audio flush feature that my daughter loves. At the end there is a nice potty chart to keep track of their progress.

“The Wait & Pee”
You may not be in a rush to get your child out of diapers. What is the rush really? When your toddler is ready they will tell you. My daughter started being verbal about having poop in her diaper around the time that she turned 2. She understood this without very little pushing from us. She picked up on poop & pee just from us discussing it during diaper changes and such.

“Web Training”
I actually picked this up from another blogger. She was offering a review for a potty training app & it piqued my curiosity. We downloaded this app to our daughters Nabi Tablet & she loves it. She cheers every time the animals go potty & she loves the music too. The app she uses is called Potty Training: Learning Animals, but there are many others out there.

“Potty Champion”
Who doesn’t love being rewarded or praised? Offering incentives, prizes and praise after a successful potty experience can be all the motivation your little one needs. Our daughter received a little piece of chocolate after today’s success. You can try keeping a potty chart where they earn stickers or ribbons too.

“Potty Here, Potty There, Potty Everywhere”
Try putting the potty where your child resides the most during training. Move it into the living room and let them get comfortable with it. My daughter will sit on the potty in lieu of her chair. When she wants to sit on the potty, we take off her diaper & let her sit. If they pee or poop, tell them “Good Job” for pooping or peeing. Keep a package of wipes handy.

“The Renaissance Trainer”
Have you ever done so much research on something that in the end you were not sure which option to take? Well that’s me. So what do you do? Try them all. We have dabbled a little bit in all of the above.

I am in no rush to have my baby grow up too quickly, but she is starting to get the hang of it on her own. She will get there in time.

Look for the signs of readiness: http://www.babycenter.com/0_potty-training-readiness-checklist_4384.bc

Remember to be patient with your child.

Don’t get frustrated. You do not want your child to feel negatively about potty training.

9 comments

Loved all the tips here and we so had that Potty Book for both my girls. Truly so glad (to be honest) potty training is behind us, but still you covered all the bases here perfectly. And yay for Mai for going potty for the first time!! 🙂

It will be nice not to wrestle her out of diapers anymore. We haven’t pressed it much. Like I said I have dabbled in all sorts of methods. She has been asking to potty on her own now. That makes me smile.

Loved this read. We have been potty training for about a week with only 2 accidents a day 🙂 she is 2 and we waited until she verbalized she had to go or just went. She would say “uh oh poop”. We had tried several times before with other methods and failed. Waiting on her cues was definitely the best choice for our little one 🙂

Thank you, Mallorye. Oh good someone in the same boat. Yeah, I didn’t want to make it too stressful. We try a little bit here & there and she is very relaxed about it and tells us about her poo poos too.

Naked baby weekend worked well with our first.. We are introducing our second to the potty now since he will be 2 in May but not really “working” on it until then! My first had us spoiled so I don’t believe the whole “boys are harder than girls” because he was so easy! We’ll see what round 2 teaches us haha! Congrats!

My son had to be Naked his first few weeks of learning about using the toilet! Something about boys seeing their pee come out of their penis that excites them. For that reason I think boys are a lot easier. All three of my boys started using the thrown before my 2 girls. We have one more girl to prove that theory wrong!

We haven’t had a full free weekend to do a real naked weekend. So we have had naked moments and let’s get dressed we have to go. Luckily, through it all she’s picking up on it. Yesterday at a send off ceremony for her uncle, who is going to Afghanistan, she announced to the crowd “I have poop in the butt.” Lol

I did all the potty training hoopla with my first few children by the time I got too child number 4 and 5 I was over it. I decided they will eventually one day go to the pot without my help. I figured they walked without my help. So we used the mimicking training, and wouldn’t you know they went to the toilet all on their own before the age of 5! My son was about 20 months. I love your tips and love that you stated all children are different and what works for one may not work for another!

Thank you. Potty training 5 kids. Wow! I always am complaining about how tired I am and how little time we have to ourselves (not that I would change a thing of course), then I remember I just have one. I had wished for a larger family, but think Miss Mai might end up being the only child. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.

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